The Imperium uses a system to distinguish governments from each other. This system is called the UWP System. Government types in the UWP indicates the general type of authority. The Planetary Government tables describe characteristics of each government type by power structure or source.

A State is an organized community living under a common leadership (government), organized on the basis of a subplanetary (...smaller than a world), planetary (world), or interstellar (multi-system) government. States are also referred to as polities. Most States have an organized government, which possesses executive, legislative, and judiciary power structures.

A Stateless Society is a society that is not governed by a state. Stateless Societies have little to no centralization of authority. What positions of authority exist are generally extremely-limited in power and scope. Stateless Societies use widely-disparate economic and cultural organizational practices. Many Stateless Societies posses little in the way of executive, legislative, or judiciary power structures.

Minor Power: A Minor Power, or Micro Power, is a state may or may not have achieved independence from other states in most aspects of governance. Some Minor States have little freedom of governance and, if strongly dominated by another state, they may be classifed as client states or vassal states.

A Sovereign State is a state run by a Centralized Government that has sovereignty, or the ability to exert power over an astrographic area, sometimes as small as a single solar system and, at other times, as large as a multi-system or even multi-sector polity.

There are six primary power structure types, most commonly found amongst the governments of Charted Space:

Anarchy: Probably the ealriest government power structure is the far less common or lasting Anarchy.

Confederation: A Confederation is an interstellar political entity with a very loose relationship amongst a number of smaller political units. In some cases, a confederacy is little more than an alliance between independent states.

Empire: Empires differ from other states in that they have supreme control over other states. In the case of the Imperium, the Emperor retains the power to exert supreme control over his vassals, or the Imperial Nobility, in a system reminiscent of feudalism with some aspects of federalism.

Federation: A Federation, or Federal State, is an interstellar political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states under a central (federal) interstellar government.

Hegemony: A Hegemony is an interstellar political entity that has established political, cultural, economic, or military predominance or control over other states.

Unitary State: A Unitary State is an interstellar political entity characterized by a higher degree of centralization than a Federation, but much less than a Hegemony or Empire. Most Unitary States have a high degree of separation of powers and guiding legal and governmental documents.

Please note that the Power Structures Table refers to bureacracy only in the sense of the effectiveness of control the bureaucracy has over the governed on a whole government level.

The bureaucracies of less-centralized states can be just as onerous as the bureaucracies or more centralized and effective states. Less-centralized bureaucracies tend to be less effective and easier to influence (...including graft and bribes).

The bureaucracies of more-centralized states tend to wield punishment and violence more often, incurring higher costs for those who break the rules. This doesn't necessarily make bribes or graft less common, but the higher opportunity costs of such actions does make the bureaucracies of more-centralized states more difficult to influence. No sophont administrator wants to take chance of losing their head (...or other vital appendage) over a petty bribe.

Standard Codes & Descriptions: The Imperium uses a standardized system of government codes referred to as the UWP (Universal World Profile) System. These codes are most useful when used to describe worlds presided over by members of Humaniti or sophonts with similar psychologies.

Government by an all-powerful minority which maintains absolute control through widespread coercion and oppression

(Supreme Oligarchy)

Empire

Code 7 Balkanization:
Balkanization is a special result which indicates that there is no world government; instead several rival territorial governments exist. In such cases, the specific qualities of each territory on the planet should be separately listed.

Code 6 Captive Government / Colony (Subordinate Government) & Codes (0, 1, 2 & 3):
Subordinate Government are non-sovereign (...or semi-sovereign) governments on other planets within a system. These governments are usually code 0,1,2,3 or 6.

Standard Government 0 thru F were kept, but the following were introduced in The New Era to reflect the changed nature of Charted Space. UWP catalogs contain the following additional codes:

New Era Government Codes

Code

Name

Power Structure

Size

Description

M

Military Dictatorship

(Autocratic Junta)

Subplanetary (Very Small) to Planetary (Small)

Government by the military (armed forces) as an interim survival measure or result of a "Coup".

Q

Interim Government

(Temporary Chaos)

Planetary (Small)

The world is ruled by a temporary government (...which may have been in power for some time).

S

Slave World

(Vassal State)

Planetary (Small)

The world’s government is ineffectual or non-existent (i.e. not sovereign). The populace survives by offering tribute or slaves to an outside power (often Vampire ships) which does not care to rule the world directly.

T

T.E.D.

(Technological Autocracy)

Planetary (Small)

T.E.D.: (Technologically Elevated Dictator). A leader or small group holds power through the use of relic technology. T.E.D.s are sometimes refered to as "(Autocratic) Technocracies".

V

Viral Hell

(Virus Vassal State)

Planetary (Small) to Multi-system (Very Large)

The world is run by malevolent "Viral Entities", ether openly or through a Quisling (manipulated) government.

Additional Codes were introduced for specific regions. The same code (N) is used in two different regions to represent two different government types. In at least one case (M), the regional code conflicts with the general government code: